


Storm is Coming

by hobikilledme



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Agender Junhui, Inspired by Mad Max Series (Movies), M/M, Multi, Racing, Rating May Change, Specifically Mad Max Fury Road, Trans Hoshi, Violence typical with the series, dystopian au, the rest of them will show up later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-15 19:28:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29564007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hobikilledme/pseuds/hobikilledme
Summary: It’s not a sand storm behind him.  He can hear them before he sees it. There’s a car coming closer, it can’t be big, the engine isn’t that loud. He can’t run, he doesn’t know how to fight. So, instead he turns around to wait for them.
Relationships: Jeon Wonwoo/Kwon Soonyoung | Hoshi, Lee Seokmin | DK/Xu Ming Hao | The8
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11





	Storm is Coming

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! my first chaptered fic! wow! I do have chapter two almost done so I'll work on that.  
> Because of the dystopian au i did create some world building so quick term defining:  
> Suns: days  
> Moons: Months  
> Turns: Years  
> Edens: sort of utopian cities where some of the population lives
> 
> But yeah! Enjoy!

Seokmin doesn’t know how long he’s been walking. It’s been at least three suns since his vehicle died and he hadn’t known enough to fix it. The mountains he’s been walking towards don’t appear to get any closer, the pod on his shoulders just gets heavier as he walks, he doesn’t know which direction he’s going and he’s hoping that the plume of dust behind him is simply a sandstorm. Not that any of the people who would follow him even know to be looking. At least he hopes not yet. 

The wind is picking up, throwing sand now. The veil he had wrapped around his head isn’t doing anything to stop the sun, just like the mask he’s wearing isn’t made for sand.

It’s not a sand storm behind him. He can hear them before he sees it. There’s a car coming closer, it can’t be big, the engine isn’t that loud. He can’t run, he doesn’t know how to fight. So, instead he turns around to wait for them.

It doesn’t take long for them to catch up to him. The car spins, kicking up another cloud of dust that leaves him coughing, falling to his knees. He wonders distantly if he should be worried if the sand is radioactive or not. Not that he has much longer to live theoretically. 

Two people step out of the car. The driver has two swords strapped to their back and the other is slightly smaller, no visible weapons which could be more dangerous. 

The driver walks over to him. He can see that they both have masks much more equipped to be out here than he does. “Who are you?” They ask. Seokmin can’t catch his breath long enough to answer.

The person in front of him has a mask covered in twisting branches. They point the end of one sword at him. A distant part of his brain thinks about how archaic the weapon is. 

There’s a gun strapped to the small of his back. He doesn’t know if he can reach it, if he’ll be fast enough to grab it or if his hands will be steady enough to shoot.

They speak again, “Put both your hands out now.”

Seokmin refuses to move one of his hands from the pod on his back. The other person with the mask with a sun drops their shoulders, “Hao, what are you doing? He’s harmless.”

The sword is completely steady, “Put both your hands out now.”

Seokmin doesn’t say anything. The person by the car huffs and walks towards them but they’re coming from behind which is already too close to the pod.

It turns out he is fast enough. 

The sword, however archaic, is still sharp enough to draw blood against his throat as he points the gun at their heart. He can’t see their eyes behind the mask, wishes he had a mask that would keep the sand out of his mouth. 

“Don’t touch it,” he says

“What is it” they ask, he doesn’t respond.

“Hao, what are you doing, just get him back to the car, we can ask questions later. I don’t know if he’s been followed,” the other person seems anxious and Seokmin wonders if _they_ are being followed.

“Why are we keeping him?” The sword still doesn’t move and the masked person, Hao, doesn’t look away from him. 

“Obviously he’s important enough to run away from someone, look at his hands, he’s probably from one of the Edens, that means money right?”

Hao glances down at his hands. He hadn’t had time to grab gloves and it’s obvious in the red light of the sun that there’s no scars or callosues on his hands.

“Fine,” Hao says and asks, “Will you come with us willingly or do I have to drag you there?”

Seokmin doesn’t see how he really has a choice. “I’ll come willingly.” Hao seems to take that as an invitation to put their sword down. He drops the gun as well. 

“Come on then,” They point towards the car with it instead, “Let’s go.” Seokmin refuses to take a hand off the pod even as Hao walks behind him.

“Don’t mind him,” the other person says cheerfully, after climbing into the front seat from shutting the door behind Seokmin. “Minghao just is wary of new people.”

“Bibi should learn to shut her mouth,” Minghao says climbing behind the wheel, “Blindfold him.”

Bibi looks at him apologetically, “Sorry about this, you seem nice enough.” She ties a strip of cloth over his eyes and the world goes dark behind it.

He can feel the engine start, and almost falls over when the car accelerates in one motion. He starts to feel nauseated when they start taking more and more turns. He hunches over the pod in his lap. Minghao and Bibi must be talking but he can’t hear anything over the roar of the wind through the windows.

As far as he knows, the desert stretches forever, he hadn’t even known there were mountains until he had seen them two suns ago. No map he was ever shown in school had explained how vast the world was outside of the 24 Edens. He hadn’t realized people lived out here.

It seems like an eternity before they stop. He doesn’t know where they are anymore, his ears are still ringing from the wind. Bibi reaches into the back and lifts the blindfold off of him.

“Home sweet home!” She says and he blinks in the sudden light. 

It really isn’t that bright, they must be underground or in some sort of stone structure. They’re parked on the edge of a vast cavern and Seokmin can see other figures in the distance. Minghao takes the wheel off and gets out of the car.

“Come on, we need to tell some people you’re here.” He starts walking before Seokmin can even scramble out of the car and strap the pod back to his back. Bibi waves at him as he runs after Minghao,

“Play nice you two!”

Minghao leads him across the cavern, nodding when people call out in greeting to him. Seokmin tries not to look around too much but the space is filled with things to look at. There’s vehicles everywhere, ones that a polecat might ride, he can count at least two huge rigs, bikes armed with spikes. He hopes he doesn’t have to run from here. He wouldn’t make it far.

They walk through a maze of tunnels and Seokmin genuinely can’t tell if they’re going deeper into the earth or away from it. It does get colder the further they go, the lights coming from ancient bulbs mounted to the stone walls. Eventually, they stop in front of a metal door that Minghao pushes open. It leads to a normal looking office, something that would be in one of the Edens. There’s shelves filled with things along the walls, even a rug made out of natural fibers, something that looks like it should be in an Archive.

“Seungcheol, we brought someone back,” Minghao says, pushing Seokmin into the room. He stumbles before the desk planted in the middle and a broad shouldered man looks up from the tablet he was looking at. He’s the first person Seokmin has seen so far without a mask. There’s a long scar from his forehead to his jaw and Seokmin decides he really doesn’t want to get on this guy’s bad side. 

“Who’s this?” He puts the tablet down and turns his full attention on Seokmin.

“Don’t know, he won’t talk,” Minghao says from the door, “Do you know where Jun is? I have to return their wheel.”

“They were in the garden last I heard, shut the door behind you will you?” Seungcheol looks at Seokmin as he speaks and it’s uncanny. There’s the soft thud of the door closing and the silence left behind is deafening. 

“So,” Seungcheol leans back in his chair, “What’s someone from the Eden’s doing in the West Wastelands?”

Seokmin doesn’t know where to even start with that. He puts a hand on the pod and Seungcheol’s eyes track the movement.

“You’re from Seoul 14 right? It’s the closest Eden to us, and no offense, you don’t look like you’d survive a much longer journey than that.” 

Seokmin nods, his mouth still dry from the sands, “Yeah, I came from there.”

“And I take it, you’re not looking to return?” Seungcheol asks. Seokmin nods again. “I won’t ask you to explain right now, but if you want to stay any longer than a few suns, I have to know what danger we’re walking into by keeping you, understood?” 

Seokmin nods, “Understood.” 

Seungcheol sets the tablet aside and stands from his desk, “We can leave that thing somewhere safe and offer you food for the time being, I’ll show you the way.” He puts a mask on that has a design of what looks like the moon.

He takes Seokmin to some sort of eating area after they drop the pod off. There’s so many people in here it throws Seokmin for a loop. 

“Come on, I’m sure Minghao and Jun are over here somewhere,” Seungcheol says, pushing through the crowd. Sure enough, Minghao and another person are sitting at a table in the back. Their masks are off and Seokmin blinks at the sharp line of Minghao’s jaw. They both look up when Seungcheol approaches.

“Take care of him, okay?” He pats Seokmin’s shoulder before making his way back through the crowd. Minghao narrows his eyes at Seokmin.

“You must be Minghao’s new find! I’m Junhui, you can just call me Jun,” the other person, Jun says cheerfully, “Take a seat, eat something.” Seokmin sits, feeling naked without the weight of the pod between his shoulder blades. He takes his mask off as Jun pushes a plate of something red his way.

“Do you have a name?” they ask. Minghao seems to be doing his best to ignore that Seokmin is there.

“It’s Seokmin,” He replies. The food is spicy, making his eyes water, and it’s the best thing he’s ever tasted. Jun laughs as he inhales basically the whole plate.

“Well Seokmin, are you going to be staying with us for a bit?” Jun asks, looking at him curiously.

“If that’s alright,” Seokmin says, wishing he hadn’t eaten so fast so he’d have something else to do than talk. It’s not that he doesn’t feel safe here, it’s more he hasn’t felt safe in so long, he’s almost forgotten what it’s like.

“Not to worry, most of us don’t bite,” they grin at him when his eyes widen. They keep making small talk with him, ignoring Minghao’s freezing silence. Seokmin thinks it’s nice, he hasn’t talked with anyone in at least two moons and the lack of human interaction was catching up with him.

The eating area had cleared out considerably when Junhui waved to someone behind him, “Oh so nice of you to show up! Where have you been?” 

Seokmin turns and finds himself looking up at the person he thought had died three turns ago, “Wonwoo hyung?” Seokmin feels like his arms are filled with ice. The other man looks like he’s seen a ghost as well, hands frozen at his sides. “What are you doing here? Soonyoung saw you die, we,” He feels the ice slowly burn away and he knocks his chair over standing up, “What do you mean you’ve been here the whole time?” He grabs Wonwoo by the collar of his jacket, “or did you just not care enough to tell us you were alive,” He hisses

Wonwoo doesn’t fight back. Seokmin wants to do something, something violent, there's red on the edges of his vision, ”You don’t think Soonyoung deserves to know?? You just let us all think you were dead for turns and never came back, never sent a message, never told us anything!” He spits at him and he feels hands pulling him off the other man. Minghao pushes him back, getting between them.

“Enough! Stop fighting already,” Minghao snaps at him, “All of us here are dead to someone, you’re dead now too.” The fight drains out of Seokmin as fast as it had appeared. He’s hyper aware of the silence surrounding him, the other people around him quiet. He jerks his arm out of Minghao’s grip and leaves the eating area, suddenly exhausted. 

He checks on the pod. It’s the same as ever, a few new scuffs on the side but not damaged. He doesn’t know what happened to Vernon, the administrative assistant who had pushed him into the first vehicle back in Seoul 14. He hopes Seungkwan is still safe, his lies surely discovered by now. He doesn’t know what happened to Soonyoung, he hadn’t had time to say goodbye. He doesn’t know what happened to Sunni.

He finds Wonwoo outside the camp later that night, his turtleneck still covering the scar of his throat that Seokmin is aware of in a way he wishes he wasn’t, the night silent beyond the outskirts of the camp. From here, Seokmin can see they’re in one of the mountains, the desert stretching further than he can see. 

Seokmin pats his shoulder, and Wonwoo flinches just a little. To be fair he probably had heard Seokmin coming up. They sit quietly for a while, the stars no longer seeming frightening now that Seokmin isn’t running as fast as he can. 

He digs around in his bag and fishes out a photodisk. He hands it to Wonwoo who takes it with fragile hands and the picture pops up. It starts playing, showing Soonyoung and Seungkwan at a park, backs turned to the camera, he doesn't remember where they were, it didn’t seem important at the time. Seokmin pops into the frame and Soonyoung turns around, Sunni balanced on their hip. She couldn’t have been more than a few moons old, head resting on Soonyoung’s shoulder still shy around cameras but Soonyoung gets her to wave. The clip ends with them all laughing at the camera before looping back.

Wonwoo looks up at him, equal parts curious and distraught. He doesn’t know what he’s trying to prove here. 

“Did you know you have a kid?” He asks the other man who stares at the disk. Seokmin stands, not asking for the disk back and not expecting an answer. He makes his way back to the cot they gave him, the pod still safely tucked beneath it. He pats the side of it and falls asleep for the first time in weeks without being afraid. 

**Author's Note:**

> If yall wanna come talk to me about mad max you can find me here!  
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/bearyjamjam)


End file.
